


Circumspection

by Dolly Grimes (Romi)



Category: Twilight (Movies), Twilight Series - All Media Types, Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: Biting, Blood, F/M, Kinda Trigger-y, Manipulation, Mild Gore, Vampires, Violence, venom - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-06
Updated: 2014-02-06
Packaged: 2018-01-11 10:12:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1171837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Romi/pseuds/Dolly%20Grimes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A 'What if' one-shot. Bella has more control over her relationship with Edward than most people think. Maybe she was more of a lion and Edward the defenseless, unsuspecting lamb.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Circumspection

Underestimation is a powerful thing. Bella revels in it. Using it to her advantage whenever she could. Before Edward she felt like she’d been stuck in a dream but now, now she was awake and alert. Now, she needed to reexamine her position and make adjustments for this to work out.  She does it all quietly, sinking into the fragile, soft human category her vampire likes to shove her in; no one thinking a thing.

It’s all easy. It’s all so simple.

x-x-x-x

Bella soaks in Edward's cocky, misjudgment of her actuality like some sweet delicacy; riding out the soft commands and subtle control Edward exerts over her quite calmly. She watches when he thinks _she_ doesn't know that he is watching her. Waiting for a sign, a sign of what she isn't sure.

When she'd been cornered by a few guys in a back alley and suddenly Edward is there, dark eyed and snarling, gripping her arm tight and shoving her into his Volvo, Bella knows she's found what she was looking for.

 

It's while they are driving away, swerving around at a speed cresting over eighty on damp roads toward Bella's friends, Edward's hands strangling the steering wheel impressively, does she notice the dull ache on her arm. She touches her arm and immerses herself in what this means.

She looks to him, observing. "What's wrong?" Bella asks because it’s expected of her. Edward's face is rigid. Her fingers press into the skin under the thin cloth of her shirt sleeve.

"Sometimes I have a problem with my temper, Bella." He spits the words out from tense lips, whispering like he's still angry and ashamed of himself.

She doesn't take pity on him or distract his overactive mind with mindless prattle. Edward mutters something under his breath and clicks on the radio; classical music spilling into the air.

And all Bella can do is turn back to the blackness of the tree line outside her window and think, okay.

x-x-x-x

 

The next time she's inside the Volvo, alone with Edward, she fills him in on a few things. "I know what you are." she says matter-of-factly, turning her head to look at his pained face. As the car swerves from her supposedly shocking statement, she thinks of maybe showing Edward the bruise on her arm. Showing the brand he left on her that testified on the strength he hid behind fresh-faced looks and suppressed instincts. She doesn’t though.

"What?" he rasps out, already having the car back under control.

"Jacob Black clued me in to a few stories after I flirted with him a bit." Bella explained needlessly, reaching up and scratching her shoulder before repeating her previous announcement. "I know what you are but I can't say I believe vampires really exist."

Edward shakes his head in disbelief, looking at her with the hint of a bitter smile. "You dazzled him? Poor, Jacob Black."

At those words she couldn't help but smirk then quickly clear her face. She turned to him, leveling him with a loaded look and said, "Not that you have any room to talk but, you have _no_ idea." And a giddy sort of flush washed over her body because things are still going very well. It was only a matter of time.

Now, now is time for a pointless questionnaire in his eyes but for Bella it's entirely something else.

"How old are you?"

"Seventeen."

"Hm. Been stuck as a hormonal teenage boy for a long time, huh?"

Edward's face is anguished again for the brief flicker of a second before falling away behind a mask of indifference. He nods definitively and they've already stopped in a parking lot across from an Italian restaurant.

"What do you eat?" She skips the bullshit questions, diving straight in to the very thing she wants to know.

His face is carved from stone, back so tense _her_ muscles cry out in sympathy. The air is stagnant, radio silence rolling through the Volvo. And then, "Are you hungry, Bella?" It obvious he intends to take her to the fancy Italian eatery, flipping the switch to unlock the doors.

"No, are you?" The question comes out challengingly; just shy of bitchy when noticing the darkness around his molten gold eyes.

Edward's face twists as he pulls the keys out of the ignition roughly. "I think you should eat." His voice hard and full of authority so she backs off and daintily slides out of the vehicle. The conversation is over for now and Bella is almost ready to make her decision.

x-x-x-x

It was only a matter of time. Jessica began mentioning the amount of time Edward had been spending around her. That day happened to be a particularly nice one so Edward isn’t at school. Bella is cornered in the library. Jealousy is already an ugly thing but on Jess it's absolutely monstrous.

"You and Edward seem pretty cozy these days."

“Uh huh,” Bella hums while flipping through her English book and trying to recall what pages needed to be read for homework. She hadn’t been paying much attention during the class, mind preoccupied with much more important things.

Jessica is shuffling folders and such around to her left; Bella can feel the heat of her stare on the side of her face but doesn’t turn. “So what, you guys are together now or something?” Her tone is nasally and whiny, something that she must have adopted from her new best friend, Lauren Mallory.

Bella closes her textbook with a loud snap. “Yes, I am. Is it any of your damn business? I think not. I have to go now, see you later.” She doesn’t actually have to go but it’d be in Jessica’s best interest if she left when she did.

 

The next time she and Edward were alone she'd already met Alice, been intimidated by both Rosalie and Emmett, and the hold on her patience with his family had begun beginning to dissolve.

"Don't I scare you?"

Edward had taken her out, showing her a meadow of pretty windflowers and sunlight that screamed romance and true love. She could scarcely arrest the scoff fighting out her throat. He'd opened his shirt and stepped into direct sunlight like he had a thing to prove and damned if Bella hadn't wished for sunglasses as a result. Who in their right mind would be scared of that?

She didn't say it like that though. "No, should I be? If anything I'm more concerned that you light up like a Christmas ornament than burst into flames like myth says."

Edward, once again staring in disbelief settles heavily on to the lush grass beside Bella's feet. He looks good like that, she thinks.

"You are strange," Edward says in wonder. "But I can't seem to walk away from you."

Bella circles him, taking in his appearance at all angles. Soaking up as much as her eyes can see. She reaches out and slides a hand through his copper, fly away hair, giving an experimental tug. Edward doesn't budge his face blank and eyes settled ahead of him. He's drifted off into La La Land.

She drops to sit before him, a hand gripping the shoulder of his shirt tightly. "Edward," she calls him from his ruminations firmly. "What are you thinking?"

"You amaze me."

"Why? I'm pretty simple once you get down to it."

"Tell me what you’re thinking." he pleads, his voice hushed. "It's so strange for me not to know."

She shakes her head with a mocking sort of smile, scooting closer. Her eyes taking in the bright gold of his and the lighter coloring under his eyes. He looks well rested, refreshed. But vampires don't sleep, Edward had said that.

"Are you hungry?" she whispered plainly, curious.

"No." His response is fast but his eyes dim a bit. A darkness seeps into the gold making it murky and almost predatory.

"Are you _thirsty_?" she probes instead, voice pitched low – eyes knowing.

"I don't want you to be afraid." He's much closer now, sunlight dancing off his skin and the sweet scent of his wafting off his frame. Bella is careful to breathe out her mouth.

"I'm not. I'm not scared of you, Edward." Her lips barely moved – shifting up on to her knees to look down at Edward. She wasn’t going to repeat herself again.

He dropped his head, ashamed, and looked like he was gearing up to move away. The fact that she could even read that much instead of him zipping away from her spoke volumes; it was perfect. Edward was hesitating. “I couldn’t live with myself if I hurt you, Bella. You don’t know how much the thought tortures me.”

She only shakes her head, the motion causing his eyes to darken even more and his nostrils to flare. His eyes flicker downward and if she were a lesser person or thought it of him she’d think he was looking down her top. He wasn’t; her bare throat was presented to him at his angle. “Don’t move.” Bella hissed out and almost purred when his body locked down tight; obeying her.

Before Edward wised up and remember that he was physically superior to her, she kissed him. It was significantly different than she thought it would. Her warm, malleable lips pressing into his cold, stone-like ones. Bella thought she caught the barest hint of a noise from him and smug pleasure crested over her. Her tongue peeked out and tasted the seam of his bottom lip and – he was gone from under her.

Bella caught herself before she landed face first in a cluster of flowers. The loud, rending crunch of something across the meadow caught her attention and she turned, too slow, to see Edward’s hands embedded in the thick trunk of a moss covered tree. His face – it was turned away from her but the sound of the snarl that ripped from his lips was carried to her ears on the wind.

Got him.

“I’d like to go home now, Edward.” She said clear and calm – indifferent of his struggle. “You should stay for dinner, meet my dad.” A smile curled her peach colored lips.

 

x-x-x-x

And so the lion fell in love with the lamb.

But who exactly was the lion? Who was the lamb?

Alice caught her in the Girls’ locker room three days later, just as she was about to head into the Gym. Bella hadn’t even known she was in the gym period. Then again the smaller teen probably changed her schedule around for this opportunity.

“Hello, Bella.” Her greeting was a little more subdued than the previous ones – a little less warm and more cautious. Curious. She wondered if perhaps the vampire had _seen_ something.

“Hi, Alice.”

“Are you still coming over after school?” Her tone is light and she isn’t looking at Bella but the space slightly above and left to her head. Alright, then.

Edward hadn’t mentioned going over his house, he’d been at hers after school and during nights. She smelled a trap. “I don’t know. I have a lot of homework and house chores to do. I’ll let you know, okay?”

Alice’s eyes glazed for a moment and then her tawny eyes focused on Bella’s chestnut eyes. Her lips downturned in a slight frown; mystified it seemed. She blinked and nodded while stepping back. “I see, well, I’ll just see you later.”

Or not. Definitely not.

 

x-x-x-x

“I have to hunt, Bella.” Edward whispered into the breath of space between. He hasn’t hunted since the day before they went to the meadow. It was roughly a week later and he’d spent almost all of his free time with her; he must be ravenous.

Bella pouts, raising herself from her prone position over him to sit back on her knees; tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. She looks demure, practically the quintessence of the Virgin Mary in Edward’s eyes. Despite the sweater three sizes too big swallowing her frame but balances out the barely there, thin cotton sleep shorts and threadbare footies.

“I thought you were going to stay with me…” she trails off, picking invisible lint off the thigh of Edward’s jeans. He shifts underneath her finger tips and she doesn’t need to look at him to see the hurt and remorseful countenance taking residence there.

“I don’t want to make you stay if you really don’t want to.”

“I’m sorry.” he whimpers, sitting up and cupping her face in big, icy, slim-fingered hands. “But – I don’t want to risk hurting you. I _can’t_ do that to you, Bella, I _can’t_.”

Bella’s face twists into an annoyed frown and she drags a leg across his thighs, settling in his lap. “It’s simple, baby.” she murmured quietly, dipping her head and dragging her nose along his neck. “Don’t hurt me... more than I ask you to.”

Her hips roll into his -- sinuous, one after another. Edward jerks at her ministrations but he knows better than to move and have her squeeze out a few tears. That is the near equivalent of spilling her blood.

“Bella…” he choked out, pleading now. She loves it.

“Kiss me.” And he does.

Edward doesn’t go hunting that night. And when one of her bruises is noticed in the lunch line Angela pulls her to the side for a powwow not two minutes later.

“Alright, just what the heck is going on between you and Edward?”

Bella raises her eyebrows because she’s a bit surprised that it was Angela that confronted her on this. “I’m being physically abused by my boyfriend.” she deadpans. The bespectacled, curly haired teen gasps sharply. Across the cafeteria, where the rest of the vampires are sitting, she can see them all tense up. Rosalie even tosses a lethal glare her way and Alice is strangely absent, she notices after a quick head count.

“Jesus, Bella!”

“Oh, God, calm down.” Bella hisses, “I was only kidding. I knew you’d think that but trust me when I say that these are consensual. I bruise easily and I kind of had a wild night with you-know-who last night.” She thanks Angela for her concern; the girl really is too sweet, dumps her food and walks out the cafeteria.

Lauren and Jessica spread nasty rumors about her and Edward by the time fifth period rolls around.

x-x-x-x

“Say it,” she breathes against his lips hot and wet, the tip of her tongue just tasting his upper lips. Hands on her hips, squeezing and trembling. Her thighs are cold like her fingertips in his hair but she continues to move against him. “Say it again, Edward.”

A gasping breath and a keening sound of longing before her request is met. “I love you.”

“Good boy.”

x-x-x-x

“Are you thirsty?” Bella asks for the third time in fifteen minutes from the passenger seat of her truck. She wanted Edward to take her up to the meadow today after school and there they were. It was now day number seven and Edward still hadn’t had a decent meal. But since Bella was such a loving girlfriend she brought him snacks.

“What’s that?” he’d asked, voice trembling but not in fear. He already knows the answer to the question. She loves playing this game.

“I love rabbits, did you know that?” Bella mused, petting the shivering black and white mass of fur in her lap.

Edward doesn’t respond so she clears her throat and he snaps his head in her direction. “Did you?” she prompts.

“No.” he croaks out.

“Stop the truck, Edward.” And he does without so much as a thought, cutting the engine as soon as they are off the road. He doesn’t turn to look at her but that’s okay because she has his undivided attention, she knows it.

“I got him for you, take him.”

Edward is hesitant to take the small animal from her hands, but does so when Bella cuts her eyes at him. He looks so – hungry. So distraught – beautiful. “Bella, I don’t –”

“He’s a _gift_ , Edward. Don’t you like him? I _bought_ him for _you_.” she says sharply. “I thought you’d love him like you love me. You still love me, don’t you?”

“Of course! I love you so much, Isabella, so much.” His expression is so earnest and she beams at him.

“Good, because I want you to _enjoy_ him. Do you _understand_?”

“I – I…”

Bella reaches into her jacket pocket and she pulls her arm out quickly, metal and reflected sunlight flash in the truck cabin and there’s redness splashed across Edward’s lap and stomach. He makes a noise she can’t ascertain but it brings with it an emotion the wells up in her; desire.

The wet letter opener drops from her hand, tumbling between the seats. Bella reaches over to him with the same blood spattered hand – just to touch but Edward’s fingers curl around her wrist in a bruising grip that sets her body on fire.

“S’much b-blood…” he says, gritting out the word that curls up into an animalistic rumble. Onyx eyes fix on the streaks of crimson staining her palm and trailing down her wrist, tracing over the patterns with his tongue. Bella’s transfixed at the spectacle of this creature lapping blood off her palm like a big cat.

“Edward,” her throat is thick when she speaks. “go.” And he’s gone.

She kicks the rabbit carcass of her seat, pulling a blanket she reserved for her legs on chilly days at the meadow and sops up the animal blood, restarts the truck and drives home. She stops for a milkshake at the diner on her way; she’s been craving something cold and sweet.

x-x-x-x

Two nights later, she and Edward are lying in her bed.

“I want to see you…”

Edward blinks slowly from his position nuzzling into her collarbone. “I’m right he—”

“To see you hunt.” she clarifies calmly, running her fingers through her mahogany hair and thinking about trimming it while Edward acclimated to her words. A breeze settles over her skin and she’s alone in her bed a glance shows that the window is thrown haphazardly open.

Bella laughs quietly, shaking her head while reaching over to turn off the lamp and pulling the duvet over her shoulders. It’s a good thing Edward is so interesting to her and her sights aren’t on anyone else because he makes this too _easy_ for her.

x-x-x-x

The following day she’s invited Jessica over to study for a Trig final. Both of them only know Jess is there for more gossip and maybe ogle Edward whom isn’t there when she arrives. He stayed home sick from school and even Bella hasn’t seen him but she’s confident he will return.

He always does.

Charlie came home when she and Jess are having a stare down. The latter had asked a few personal questions in regards to Bella and Edward’s relationship. Questions Bella didn’t feel the pressing need to answer anytime soon so she only continued to stare at the other girl, utterly apathetic.

“Do I even want to know?” Charlie mutters into the empty air after watching Jessica gather her things and stomp out the house. Muttering heatedly under her breath and barely sparing him with a civil nod.

“She’s a lesbian,” Bella intoned in a tone that was supposed to explain everything. “No means no.”

“Right,” he replied more than a little uncomfortable. She retreats to her room after giving him a somewhat comforting one-armed hug.

x-x-x-x

Edward appears in her room after being away from her for two full days. She doesn’t say anything only continues to read her battered copy of _Wuthering Heights_ rocking in her chair. He doesn’t say anything for at least ten minutes.

“Bella – ”

“Don’t,” she snaps, licking two fingers and flipping a page.

An hour later she’s tired of reading and closes the book. He’s sitting on her bed now, looking absolutely miserably, appearance a far cry from the immaculate persona she saw that first day at Forks High. His eyes are darker still.

“Do you love me, Edward?”

“Yes, more than anything.” he claims, coming alive at the prospects of praising his way back into her good graces.

“Prove it.” she orders, crossing her arms over her chest.

He’s on her in less time it takes to blink and they’re tumbling on her too small bed. Edward is much heavier and bigger than her, crowding her into the mattress which she hates so she always ends up on top moments later. In the midst of rumpled bed sheets and discarded clothes she finds her voice. “I said prove it, Edward. This doesn’t count but…I’ll accept it nonetheless.”

“I will,” he moans out when her fingers slip past his belt buckle. “Anything you want.”

Too easy.

x-x-x-x

 She cuts her finger while slicing strawberries for a fruit salad on a Thursday.

Edward isn’t there but she wishes he was so bad that it aches. Bella watches her blood drip over the red fruit, saturating it, feeling almost in a trance. The front door shuts and she can hear Charlie’s boots stomping on the inside welcome mat.

She wraps her hand in a dish towel, shoves the blood soaked fruit down the garbage disposal and makes her way upstairs to clean her hand in the bathroom. When Charlie asks about her wrapped finger while their watching some baseball game later that night she lies. Tells him she cut herself shaving in the shower.

Not that she was slicing fruit with the big knife he’d sharpened the night before when cutting up fish Billy sent over. Doesn’t say that maybe she’d been slicing the fruit a little too thin, a little too close to her fingers.

Bella doesn’t admit that maybe, just maybe she’d cut herself on purpose just to see – to feel because she’d made another decision.

 

x-x-x-x

They’re in Seattle this time. Running _errands_ as she told Charlie.

“Do you love me?” she repeats the question from a few days earlier. Edward’s fingers tighten around her hand. “Of course, Bella.”

“Will you do it, for me?” It’s raining again and the sun is setting, they’re both getting soaked.

He’s eager and that’s just as well because it’s about time. Bella isn’t looking at him, she’s staring at her. “Yes. Whatever you want.”  he says.

“I want to see you _hunt_.” she tells him, boring into the girl in the diner across the street with ginger hair in the green blouse and tan skirt. “I want her, Edward. She’s the one I want so I want you to _want_ her too.”

“I _want_ her.” Edward growls like a caged predator, his eyes the color of coal. He takes a step forward but Bella grips his hand and he stops even though he could break away so, so easily. His breathing his off, heavier and louder than originally

“Focus, Edward.” she commands. “Bring her to me; I want to see it all…”

He nodded then, eyes shadowed by his hair and she...let him go.

 

She’s more beautiful up close, Bella thinks to herself while her fingers brush over the apple of the girl’s cheek. She had freckles and the hint of dimples even when she isn’t smiling. Her fingers slide in the saline wetness there and it’s all so – lovely. Bella lifts her fingers up, the tips of her fingers glistening, and presses them to her lips.

“Did I do well?” Edward asks, watching Bella and the girl with avid attention. His hand clamped over the girl’s mouth instead of a cloth gag, just as Bella ordered.

“You did perfect, Edward, perfect.” she praised and he preened happily, soaking it all in.

A whine escapes the woman then as she comes to and she leans closer to see long lashes flutter and reveal wide, green-blue eyes. “Hello,” Bella grinned, lips pulling back a little too wide to show her snowy white teeth. She watched in bubbling satisfaction as the woman became alert immediately, struggling against her restraints.

“Now, now, no need to struggle. You won’t get away even if you escape the ropes.” her tone was chipper and matter-of-factly. “Edward and I will keep you nice and _comfortable_ , don’t you worry.”

Bella can hear the sob lodged in the girl’s throat and doesn’t fight the smile that crawls over her lips. She shakes her head ruefully and looks to Edward. “What’s her name?”

“Christine Casey,” Edward answers readily, blinking oily black eyes lazily.

She hums, dipping her head to look into Christine’s eyes and changing directions at the last moment and nuzzling into her hair. She smelled like sunflowers and blueberries – like the middle of summer, hot and sweet. “She smells so good.” Bella croons, looking to Edward who nods.

“Delicious,” he rumbles from her right, running his tongue over his teeth – a control technique. Well, that just wouldn’t do.

“Let’s share her.” Bella decides and Christine whimpers when her fingers travel down to the green blouse she’s wearing and begins to unbutton it. A black bra, plain and simple, strains against warm, supple skin. Edward hasn’t said anything yet so she looks at him coyly. “Would you like that?”

“Yes,” he breathes and moves closer to kiss her, taking her tongue into his mouth with submissiveness only Bella knew of.

“Touch her, Edward, feel her – I want to see you. Don’t hold back, let me see it.”

Christine shakes her head. “Please..please, no. Don’t do this, please.” Her voice is slightly hoarse and thick with several emotions that Bella doesn’t care to name and so, she ignores her.

She sits in a chair, turning it around to prop her arms up on the back of it and observes. The first time Edward touches her – ghosts a finger over her collarbone an ugly snap sounds and Christine’s shrill shriek echoes through the room and out into the hall of the broken down motel they were occupying. No one around for half a mile in either direction, nobody was going to come save Christine Casey.

Bella rocked forward in the chair, smirking and greedily watching Edward simply press into soft skin and snap ribs. Choked off guttural groans of agony washed over her like cool spring water. But she was growing tired of that, wondering why Edward was playing with her for so long.

“Here,” she said. “Let me help you.” Finally, she stood, kicking the chair away and pulling a knife from her boot. Bella squatted over Christine, brushing auburn locks from her face, red and masked with discomfort. Her breathing was labored and bruises were already showing up on her previously unmarked skin. Now deep violet splotches checkered her flesh and Bella didn’t even fight the manic grin stretching over her face.

She cooed wordlessly at the girl for a moment, lulling her into a soft whining mess. “I’m not going to apologize for this. We’re all mostly adults here and are familiar with the coined phrase of stranger danger. This is your fault. You could have walked away but you went willingly like a poor sheep to slaughter.” Bella caressed Christine’s cheek, raising her head to peer at Edward as he moved to kneel in front of her.

His eyes were that odd onyx with flecks of gold on the fringes, flashing when he looks to their toy and back up at her. He’s all adoring looks and tense, jerky movements like he’s remembering to play human after the fact.

“Christine…” she sang softly. “I’m really glad we had that talk. Now, this is going to hurt a lot… feel free to scream as loud as you want. Edward and I won’t judge you.”

The steel slips between flesh and bone like sin and Christine’s answering cry was a symphony. Edward snarled, the metallic sweetness of blood clouding the air between them. “Stay.” Bella says firmly. She’d given him the chance to do this before and he took his time so he could wait a few seconds longer. She twisted the knife, jerking it out and plunging it in again at the center of the girl’s belly. Her heels scratch at the carpeted floor – feet bound at the ankles by duct tape. She can only imagine the girl’s toes curling at the literal gut-wrenching pain.

Bella watched the small burst of energy to fight drain out of Christine with pleasure. “Now, Edward, do it now.”

He leans down, flat black eyes boring into green-blue ones with cold interest. He snaps. His strike is lightning fast. Pearly teeth coated in venom that could make or break a person sink into a bare shoulder. Bella watches, deaf to any noise made by Christine, lost in the sight of Edward. His cheeks hollow with the pull of blood from his prey and Bella moans – gripping the knife in Christine’s stomach as her hips give a half-aborted uptick that told of her desire.

She leans down, a crimson slick hands delving into Edward’s hair to grasp at silky strands, nuzzling his temple. “Good boy.” Bella croons over and over. It isn’t long before he tears away from the lifeless body of the girl, her body jerking and head lolling to one side.

“What did she taste like?” she asks.

Edward draws in an unneeded breath, near feral in its sound. “Like grapefruit and oranges…”

“Yeah,” Bella breathes, fingers tightening on his hair. They’re so close together. “Show me.”

Their lips slammed together, hers splitting under the force but not deterring either from the kiss. Even when the kiss became slick with her blood, she only shoved her tongue into his mouth and relished the tear of her tongue against his teeth.

It was all just that simple.

x-x-x-x

 

“I’m going to bed, Bells.” Charlie said, standing from the table tiredly and putting his plate in the sudsy sink.

“Alright, sleep well, dad.” she replied, turning her face up to receive the warm kiss pressed to her hairline. She blinked slowly when Charlie made a startled noise in the back of his throat.

“Jesus, Bella, you’re a little on the cold side, kiddo.” he said with a small laugh and ‘what can you do’ shrug. “You’re going to catch a cold, close the window.” Charlie nodded to the window over the sink that indeed was wide open.

Bella withheld a smile in her shoulder with a faked stretch. “Yeah, okay. I’ll do that when I’m done you just head to bed.”

Charlie kissed her goodnight on the crown of her head again, pulling her into a half-hug and tromped upstairs. She listened to him go, plunging her hands back into lukewarm dishwater in the same moment that her eyes burned – another pair of contacts gone.

Outside there was a thud of feet in the grass and a pair of crimson eyes peering at her from the dark; eyes that mirrored her own. 


End file.
